Quantum theory is known for its peculiar concepts that appear to contradict the fundamental principles of traditional physics. Researchers from Heidelberg University have now succeeded in creating a special quantum state between two mesoscopic gases with approximately 500 atoms.
The state is known as a "squeezed" vacuum, in which measuring one gas affects the results of the measurement on the other. To produce these results the team, headed by Prof. Dr. Markus Oberthaler at the Kirchhoff Institute for Physics, had to develop a novel detection technique to measure values in atomic gases that were previously unobtainable. The results of their research have been published in the journal Nature.
The quantum state observed by the Heidelberg researchers has been of fundamental interest since it was first put forward in 1935 by Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen (EPR) in a thought experiment. The three researchers wanted to use it to demonstrate that quantum mechanics is not consistent with a local reality of physical systems that is experimentally observable. The EPR situation refers to two systems in a state of quantum entanglement, where measuring one system instantaneously effects the results of the measurement on the other -- an incomprehensible fact to our traditional way of thinking, where physical laws exist regardless of whether systems are observed or not.
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